History students should use the Irish Historical Studies Referencing Style. Here is a guide to the most common rules for citation. Any citation matters not dealt with in this document can be addressed in the full version of the rules available at:http://donegalhistory.com/morerules.pdf

There are two main reasons for following the appropriate style:

(1) to allow the reader easily to identify and locate your source;

(2) to demonstrate the skill of adhering to the conventions of a particular genre of writing.

The key points are:

Use footnotes (numbered from 1)

Include the author’s name, the title of the work, place and date of publication, edition if there is more than one, and the page number

Do not include the publisher

When you cite a source for the second time use a short form. For example, Eric Richards, Britannia's Children: Emigration from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland since 1600 (London, 2004), p. 45 should become Richards, Britannia’s Children, p. 47.

The style for the bibliography is slightly different and is discussed below

Bernard Bailyn, ‘The first British Empire: from Cambridge to Oxford’ in William and Mary Quarterly, 57, no. 3 (2000), pp 647-60.

Footnotes: References to Primary Sources

When primary sources are supplied by your module co-ordinator, just use the citation you are given. Otherwise, consult the full version of the rules available at: http://donegalhistory.com/morerules.pdf​

References to Electronic Sources

Since internet sources can be modified without notice, citation of such sources should include, besides details of the document itself, both a website address and the date on which it was consulted.

The key pieces of information here are the address and the date you accessed the site. If an author’s name is supplied, give it. This applies only to websites. Articles and primary sources that are available online should always be cited as hardcopy. You should never, for example, cite JSTOR.

Jacob Riis, How the other half lives (New York, 1890), available at New York City Museum, Five Points History Project, (http://R2qsa.gov/fivept/fphome.htm) (9 June 2001).

The bibliography is the list of all the sources that have influenced the assignment, not just those that appear in footnotes. List all these sources by author’s name in alphabetical order and, to facilitate this, put the surname first. A bibliography should distinguish between primary and secondary sources.

Bailyn, Bernard. ‘The first British Empire: from Cambridge to Oxford’. William and Mary Quarterly, 57, no. 3 (2000), pp 647-60.